But the more practical question, the more crucial question, is this: how to best replicate a model that's clearly here to stay?

The Wikileaks imitators are already legion. Al Jazeera launched its Transparency Unit in January. The Wall Street Journal just put SafeHouse online a few weeks ago. And Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times says the paper of record is weighing its own "EZ Pass lane for leakers."

It seems entirely possible that a digital "drop box" for anonymous whistleblowers will be a standard feature on any major or midsize news organization's web site — not to mention leading unions' and nonprofits' sites — within three years.

Indeed, Openleaks — founded by Wiki-leaks defectors — is busy working on a leaking protocol that it plans to customize for a sweeping collection of media and advocacy organizations the world over.

But this leaks business, it turns out, is a tricky one. Take the most recent venture. The Wall Street Journal's SafeHouse site had only been live for a matter of hours when security experts started calling it, among other things, a "total anonymity failure."

A series of patches followed. But the paper still faces questions about the "terms and conditions" it imposes on would-be leakers. The legalese includes this rather alarming statement: the Journal "reserve[s] the right to disclose any information about you to law enforcement authorities or to a requesting third party, without notice, in order to comply with any applicable laws and/or requests under legal process."

The Journal, facing sharp criticism for the language, issued a statement about the heavy premium it places on protecting sources. And there is no reason to doubt the paper's sincerity.

But as Peter Scheer, executive director of the California-based First Amendment Coalition, points out, the Journal's terms and conditions speak to a larger quandary for mainstream media organizations.

Wikileaks, a transnational and loosely organized group, has remained largely beyond the reach of the law — Assange's personal legal problems notwithstanding. But the Journal and other traditional news gatherers weighing digital drop boxes operate in a different world.

"If you're a legitimate business and you have assets and employees and shareholders you have to worry about, you can't just deny the existence of certain laws and legal systems and the potential for court orders," says Scheer, who will appear on a Wikileaks panel at the Providence Biltmore on May 21 as part of the FOI Summit, hosted by the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the New England First Amendment Coalition.

It's possible to imagine a way around the problem — a third party, outside the jurisdiction of US courts, that fields leaks, ensures the anonymity of the leakers, and funnels the information to mainstream news organizations in a far more systematic way than Wikileaks has to date.

But that would raise questions of trust, control, and ethics that have soured the relationship between Wikileaks and organizations like the New York Times, whose executive editor famously lashed out at Assange in a Times Magazine article.

News worth paying for? The Providence Journal , offering a rare window onto its own affairs, recently reported that the newspaper could start charging for access to large swaths of projo.com as early as the first quarter of next year.

Ransom Notes While reporting from Afghanistan two years ago, David Rohde became, for the second time in his career, an unwilling participant rather than an observer. On October 29, 1995, Rohde had been arrested by Bosnian Serbs. And then in November 2008, Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were en route to an interview with a Taliban commander when they were kidnapped.

Is Murdoch’s WSJ being snubbed? This year’s Pulitzer Prize box score has the Washington Post taking four prizes (international reporting, feature writing, commentary, and criticism) and the New York Times snagging three (explanatory, national, and investigative reporting).

Murdoch mishegoss Never mind that Rupert Murdoch is shelling out better than $2 billion to buy Metromedia’s seven TV stations. Never mind that he’s then turning around and reselling Boston’s WCVB-TV, Channel 5 to the Hearst Corporation for an astounding $450 million.

WikiLeaks: What it means Only a day after three of the world's most-prominent news organizations — the New York Times , the Guardian , and Der Spiegel — published reports based on the 90,000-plus purloined secret Afghanistan War documents released by WikiLeaks, the US House of Representatives passed a $59 billion war-funding bill on a vote of 308 to 114, sending it to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Kissing off 2009 I had no New Year's kiss last year. I had fun, friends, a bonfire, and a bellyful of delicious food, but no kiss.

Through a glass darkly Predicting a Super Bowl winner doesn't make you a genius: after all, given a pool of 32 teams, one of them is bound to capture the trophy. But predicting the future for an industry that's been buffeted by new technologies and economic vicissitudes, and sometimes seems to have all the substance and staying power of sea foam? That's an accomplishment.

Considering Kagan Elena Kagan, onetime dean of Harvard Law School and current US solicitor general, is a less than perfect candidate to sit on the Supreme Court.

LIBERAL WARRIOR | April 10, 2013 When it comes to his signature issues — climate change, campaign finance reform, tax fairness — Whitehouse makes little secret of his approach: marshal the facts, hammer the Republicans, and embarrass them into action.

AT BROWN, A WIN FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVISTS | April 11, 2013 A key Brown University oversight committee has voted to recommend the school divest from coal, delivering a significant victory to student climate change activists.

HACKING POLITICS: A GUIDE | April 03, 2013 Last year, the Internet briefly upended everything we know about American politics.

BREAK ON THROUGH | March 28, 2013 When I spoke with Treasurer Gina Raimondo this week, I opened with the obligatory question about whether she'll run for governor. "I'm seriously considering it," she said. "But I think as you know — we've talked about it before — I have little kids: a six-year-old, an eight-year-old. I'm a mother. It's a big deal."

THE LIBERAL CASE FOR GUNS | March 27, 2013 The school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut spurred hope not just for sensible gun regulation, but for a more nuanced discussion of America's gun culture. Neither wish has been realized.